Peres – the electronic nose which can protect you from food poisoning

There are about 76 million reported cases of illness resulting from food each year in the US alone, so goodness knows what the number is worldwide. The fact is that our mass produced agri system is such a long chain that it’s inevitable we’re going to suffer problems as food deteriorates in transit. If only there was a way for ordinary folk to avoid risky products and save a trip to the doctor or worse.

Peres claims to offer just that protection. This ‘electronic nose‘ literally sniffs out tell-tale emissions coming off decomposing food via the use of four different types of sensors – temperature, humidity, ammonia, and other ‘organic‘ compounds.

The user simply points the gadget at the food and clicks a button. The readings of these ‘volatile organic compounds’ are then sent to the paired smartphone via Bluetooth (you guessed that, didn’t you?) to be analyzed, at which point you get an indication of the freshness of the food or otherwise.

The product will apparently be able to detect whether the product in question is fresh, hazardous to health, has been left out of the fridge for a while or indeed is possibly spoiled enough to deliver a nasty dose of food poisoning. Of these we suspect the last may the easiest to determine, but we’ll have to wait and see until the Lithuanian product finally arrives on the shelves later this year. The final product will retail for somewhere around the $100 mark.

Nigel is the managing editor of the Red Ferret, as well as a freelance columnist for the Sunday Times newspaper in London. Loves tech and fancies himself as a bit of a futurist, but then don’t we all?